When it comes to setting up an eCommerce store, you have several options; Shopify is one of the more popular ones.
Shopify has a different approach to Amazon. When you sell on Amazon, you are listing your products on their website – on Shopify, you create your own eCommerce store with its own style and branding.
This allows for much greater creativity and freedom to display your products how you wish, although there are still a few guidelines which we will get into in a moment.
Setting up a Shopify store is not as daunting as it may first seem – they have made the whole process straightforward and have a lot of helpful resources too.
And with the coming of Facebook Shops (which appears to promise Shopify integration), now may be the perfect time to get your shop in order, as many more eCommerce stores are set to spring up in the next few months.
Even if you have your products selling on an existing Shopify Store, it may be time to review them and freshen up or update the product photos or add a video or two.
As discussed elsewhere, your online sales success depends a lot on your product photographs – read more about that here.
Shopify has a few guidelines for photographs and other visual media which you may wish to upload to your store page; we have detailed these below.
Many eCommerce retailers decide that it is faster and often less expensive to pay a professional to take over the product photography and other visual media (such as video) for them.
We will also, therefore, also compare a few companies that offer product visual media services.
General Guidance
On your Shopify eCommerce store, each product may have up to 250 images. These can be photographs, videos or even 3D models.
The first media item for each product is referred to as the featured (or main) media item. The main media item is shown on collection pages, the shopping cart page, the checkout page and your home page.
Unlike Amazon, Shopify does not insist on white background shots for your main product photographs, however, it is still good advice to do this. In almost all circumstances, the plain white background is the optimum presentation style to show your products with maximum effect.
Your product and collection images can be any size up to 4472 x 4472 pixels in size (or 20 megapixels).
Also, each image needs to have a file size less than 20MB.
High-resolution photos are recommended, and they suggest 2048 x 2048 pixels for square photos.
Collections are groups of a single item and its variants – for example, a product that is available in different colours. To work properly in the shop, all collection images should have an identical aspect ratio (for example, ratios of 1:2 or 2:3).
They do not need to be identical in size, although by doing this you will keep the image quality consistent and is therefore recommended.
For additional images
Apart from your main image, you should also have some supplemental photographs. These will show sides of your product that are not visible in the main picture, and the guidelines above should be followed for these as well.
Separately, there are also several different styles of product photograph which can further help your customer to decide to purchase.
eCommerce product video can be uploaded to your product page – the following requirements should be met for each video:
- Maximum length: Up to 60 seconds
- Maximum file size: Up to 1GB
- Video resolution: Up to 4K (4096 x 2160 pixels)
- Video file type: .mp4 or .mov
3D models may also be used. These let you view your product from any angle. They can give your customers a sense of the size, scale, and detail of your products.
The maximum file size for 3D models is 15MB, although Spotify recommends 6MB or less.
Finding a professional product photographer
For many eCommerce retailers, producing their own product photographs or video is not economically viable – either because they have no photographic experience or due to the amount of time it would take them to produce all the media.
Most online retailers, therefore, turn to professional product photographers to complete this task for them.
Professional photography services already know how to optimise the shoot and retouching for eCommerce stores, including Shopify, and will do this if you tell them where the photos are being used.
They will also complete the whole process faster than you can as an individual.
It’s worth looking around at a few companies as they all differ in service and pricing structure.
Pic-up.co.uk have varying charges for different sized items (and different categories); their prices generally start at around £12-£15 per item (one view), with a minimum order of £300.
Productphotography.co.uk have a lower-price package for £125, which includes 8 images (approx. £15 per photo).
Some services will also scale costs when a large number of items are being photographed; this is useful if you have multiple lines of products but can mean lower numbers are more expensive.
For instance, productphoto.com charge $25 per photo for a small number and scale down to $7 per photo for 700+ images.
A better alternative
For a refreshingly different approach, Splento’s pricing is based on a fixed charge per hour.
Their professional product photographers can be hired from just £99 per hour – and this includes retouching and delivery of the finished photographs within 24 hours (guaranteed).
Videography services are also available for just £149 per hour and, again includes editing and all finishing (titles etc), ready for use.
Rather than scale price according to the size of your order, Splento has scaled their entire photographic process so that lower prices are available for everyone – regardless of the size of the order or number of photos you require.
For more detail about this unique approach, contact Splento today and see the difference they are making to the product photography industry.
Booking is simple through a straightforward online form and they are available 24/7 in any location – wherever you are.
Follow this link to see the latest examples of Splento’s product photography portfolio.
You are also welcome to contact Splento even if you just need a little more help or advice with your Shopify eCommerce product photography.
Contact Splento if you are in need of:
